Art essay

Shona Blanford

During the summer holidays I listened to a philosophical debate called ‘Having More Makes you

Happier’ in which one of the wealthiest men in England argued that being wealthier with money

makes you happier. He was debating with a chancellor from St Paul’s Cathedral, who had retired

when the protestors were asked to move on. It fascinated me.

Some weeks later, I was on holiday on the Isle of Mull, an island of the Inner Hebrides off the west

coast of Scotland. Mull is known for its amazing landscapes and wildlife. It has remoteness

impossible to experience in the South East of England. During the week in Mull, I often thought

about the debate. Being surrounded by wilderness I couldn’t help thinking that having money

doesn’t necessarily bring happiness, however having a wealth of experiences such as being able to

escape to Mull and witness the vast sea and landscapes or having rich loving memories of times

spent with family and friends is more likely to. Obviously it takes a certain amount of wealth to

enjoy these non- materialistic experiences but it is clear that money alone does not bring happiness.

Materialistic possessions bought with endless amounts of money could never compare.

Following this I began to think how I could express this through art. I started with a still life water

colour painting I did in Mull of a particularly beautiful spot looking out over a loch with clouds

covering the hills behind it. That to me was an experience that I wouldn’t have traded for money or

any materialistic possession since it was a real life memory that I was lucky to have. I continued by

taking photos of the beautiful surroundings in Mull, representing an experience. I started

questioning; does happiness come from wealth of experience or wealth through materialism?

Some argue that time is the most valuable thing. Everything relies on time and in time everything

comes to an end. People rely on time for their everyday lives and that is why it is so important.

Clocks and watches are materialistic possessions; however time is of the essence in life to those who

live life to the full.

Continuing, I began looking at the two extreme sides; wealth and poverty. I looked at how happiness

relates to both. Photography seemed useful in clear ways to read emotions. Starting with poverty I

researched various photographers to see how they portrayed poverty. Some of which were photos

of children looking very happy but have near to nothing. Their happiness may come because they

are happy with what they already have, they do not see the need for anything else or it may be that

they do not have the knowledge for what they do not have and what others do, thus they think they

are lucky in life anyway. These children may be rich in experience yet poor i n money. I was trying to

see how having little, you can still be happy.

The first artist I came across was Lee Jeffries. Although he is an

amateur photographer, his images absorb me and I think it represents poverty successfully, since his

photographs portray every emotion in the faces and in such detail. His work is nearly always in black

and white which expresses the extreme misery associated with poverty. He not only captures the

older generation but all ages.

Another artist I found was Dorothea Lange. Lange is most famous for documenting World War 2 with

photography. Unlike Jeffries and other mainstream poverty photographers she shows the strength

of the people. Instead of depicting them as being unstable and victims of the war, she often

photographs children looking very happy but in rags.

Don McCullin was similar to Lee Jeffries in the way that when photographing poverty he does it in a

moody dark scene, expressing the seriousness of their lack of money. McCullin often works in

geopolitical hotspots to make aware serious situations to the public. There is a particular exhibition

that McCullin did called ‘shaped by war’. It shows a lot of grief and sadness from the people. He has

shaped out awareness and understanding of modern conflict and i ts consequences.

This is one

of McCullin’s most famous images, names ‘Shellshocked US Marine, Hue, Vietnam’. It was taken

during the battle for the city of Hue in 1968. It’s stillness and intensity says just as much about the

effects of the war, as his more visual photos of conflict.

I then moved to the contrasting side of extreme wealth. I chose the Queen as a perfect

representative of someone with excessive wealth. Many people have a lot of resentment towards

the Queen and much of the royal family since they believe that they don’t do much yet receive

endless amounts of money. The Queen in particular is a target to anger due to the fact that she

rarely ever looks happy. Many would think that having endless amounts of money would make you

happy. The subject of materialism relates well to wealth; the thought of having lots of materialistic

possessions may mean that you are wealthy and the majority of today’s society would agree with

that idea. However, others have a contrasting view that wealth doesn’t even relate to money. Their

view on wealth is not to be rich with money but instead the abstract experiences that others do not

have, make you luckier, wealthier and happier in life.

At this stage I got a bit lost in knowing which direction I could take from there. I didn’t feel complete

and therefore I wanted to expand the idea. I thought about potential ideas into two different mind

maps. The first was centred on Liberty, Freedom and Happiness. From that I considered culture,

pressure, religion and obligations. The second centred on photography, expanding with ideas of

conceptions, reality, imagination, personal, history, document.

I didn’t want to completely change paths from my previous ideas, since that is what motivated me.

Therefore I proceeded to look at class. Developing from wealth and poverty and what makes you

happy, I thought how do people learn about these situations.

In school years, although children may not have an understanding of what class is, they have a sense

of the differences in lifestyles between the children. In my experience, this is one of the main

reasons for bullying. What we ourselves as is, is a lot of the time different to what society class us as.

Sometimes people are even embarrassed to admit what class they are, this may be a result from a

stereotypical behaviour of upper, middle and working class people. In my school, I remember a lot of

people who were well spoken, were picked on and were told they were posh. Furthermore, if

someone had expensive out of the ordinary clothing, they would be picked on as well. On the other

hand, if a student were to be obviously less wealthy, they may have been a target of bullying as well.

Moreover, nowadays being middle class is often seen as being snooty. Therefore class is a very hard

thing to represent and I think it is a difficult topic to learn about since no one really teaches you it. It

is more something that you are surrounded with in everyday life.

I thought that confessional art related to class very well. This is because many people don’t like to

admit what class they are. Gillian Wearing is a conceptual artist from London. Similarly to Tracy

Emin, Wearing uses shock tactics in her artwork and uses a lot of new materials to produce art. The

first exhibition ‘Masks’ caught my eye since it is a series of photos and videos of people wearing

masks. It relates well to confessional art since she let people choose a mask and then videos them as

they confess to something whilst having their identity hidden. It is haunting in the way that you see

people telling tragic stories but they having emotionless faces. While it is disturbing to watch, it is

also liberating for the person. Wearing questions how much we can dete rmine about someone’s

personality by looking at a person’s face and facial expressions.

Another exhibition she did was ‘signs’. In ‘signs’ Wearing asked people to write whatever they

wanted on a piece of paper. It captured the people’s imagination since they responded so openly.

On a visit to the Tate Modern, I experienced Tino Seghal’s exhibition called ‘These associations’. Tino

Seghal’s art work consists purely of live encounters between people. ‘These associations’ was an

exhibition in the Turbine Hall which consisted of an assembly of participants whose choreographed

actions using movement sound and conversation. It fascinated me since it felt like it was sprung on

me. As I was standing in the Turbine Hall, there was a gradual confusing humming noise getting

loader and developing into static words sung by a chorus of people around me. It took me a while to

figure that it was an exhibition, since it was all so surreal. The sounds developed to slow movements

which then progressed to fast abstract movements. I was then approached by someone from the

ensemble, who proceeded to tell me a honest but unsettling story about his childhood. Although it

was bizarre, it was very moving. It was only after I had heard his story and he had walked away that I

realised he was part of the ensemble. I thought it worked so well because it was so intense and real.

The actor was telling a real story from his childhood as well so it was confessional and honest.

-My own photo of ‘These associations’.

Gillian Wearing and Tino Seghal’s confessional art inspired me to attempt some of my own but relate

it to class. I planned on documenting a question and response idea showing different people’s views

on their class and lifestyle whether they know or not. I wanted to vide o the responses as well as

photograph the expressions and feelings they gave. Along with this, I wanted to understand how

children learn about class and how bullying can make them realise.

The questions I asked were-

What do you think class is?

What do you class yourself as?

What do you think society class you as?

For what reason do you think the majority of children get bullied?

I in particular wanted to see if there was a common difference in the second and third question, to

see if there were some underlying stereotyping issues. The fourth question was to see if class does

relate regularly to bullying and perhaps it is even a reason. I got a mixture of responses from

different ages of students. The student of my age gave a more in depth explanation as to what he

thought class was and spoke very passionately about how society stereotype people as certain

classes due to what they wear and who they are with. He admitted that he was middle class but

seemed embarrassed to say it and also said he wouldn’t go around admitting it. The oldest

respondent was a teacher from SEN, she gave a different response to everyone else since she was

the only one to say ‘I don’t believe in class’. Her expression gave me the impression that she thought

it was a deeply personal matter. She continued to say that she wouldn’t class herself as anything but

she thought that the majority of society would say she was working class. The youngest respondents

that agreed to do it were a pair of boys around the age of 14. Although they agreed they still seemed

uncomfortable and asked to be filmed together. When I asked ‘what do you think class is?’ they both

assumed I was talking about school classes. I decided not to correct them since I thought, why

should they know by now? It also proved that unless you are taught about it how are people meant

to understand completely? However when I moved onto the second and third questions, they both

agreed that they would class themselves as middle class and they thought that society would do the

same. Their reason was because they ‘do the same as everyone else’ as if everyone else is middle

class. The bullying question absorbed me since all answers were unanimous in saying that the

majority of people who get bullied are because they act or appear diffe rent to others. However the

youngest respondents were the only two to mention disability as a reason. This was important since

they are constantly surrounded by bullying and learning all the time. With the films I took of their

responses I took snapshots to study the expressions and emotions more intensely.

Richard Billingham was the next artist that called out to me. He is most famous for his exhibition

called ‘Ray’s a laugh’. It is a series of photos of his parents in their own home being completely

natural. It is a clearly dysfunctional family torn apart by alcohol and poverty. The photos depict his

alcoholic father and overweight mother in unattractive situations. I love ‘Ray’s a laugh’ since it is so

honest and Billingham manages to make it all look absolutely natural and un-posed.

. -‘Ray’s a laugh’.

After doing my sketches of some of Billingham’s photos, I decided to take some of my own home

life. Although my private life isn’t similar to Billingham’s in the fact that it isn’t violent and we don’t

live in poverty, I still liked the idea of capturing it and being completely open, honest and un -staged

about the bits of my life that others don’t see. I documented a 15 minute segment of my mum’s life

one evening which I think went very successfully.

This was my favourite photo from the collection. It looks completely

natural. Putting on make-up is something that no one else really sees and it is a process done

privately. That is what makes it so honest and open. I think the crack in the mirror adds to the

unordinary feel of it, it makes it less staged. This is therefore the photo I have chosen for my first

final piece.

I continued to take another batch of photos of my brother when he was waking up in the morning.

This was also successful in the fact that he didn’t mind what he looked like and therefore acted

completely naturally as a teenage boy would do in the morning.